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Legislative Conference to Feature CNN Correspondent, Political Commentator, and Education Professor

  • Manu Raju, CNN’s Chief Congressional Correspondent and anchor, will speak at the Council of the Great City Schools’ Legislative/Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., March 22-25 at the Mayflower Hotel.

    A veteran reporter, Raju previously served as a Capitol Hill correspondent at digital newspaper POLITICO for seven years. Prior to his time at POLITICO, Raju reported for The Hill newspaper, Congressional Quarterly, and Inside Washington Publishers.

    As the chief congressional correspondent for CNN, Raju spends most of his time in the halls of the U.S. Capitol, where he interviews lawmakers about the major issues of the day. He also serves as the anchor of the weekly Inside Politics Sunday show. 

    Raju has won multiple journalism awards for his reporting and coverage of campaign politics. In 2022, he was part of a team of reporters who won the David Bloom Award from the Radio and Television Correspondents Association for their coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

    Also, addressing the conference is Tara Setmayer, former CNN political commentator, contributor to ABC News, and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill.

    She currently serves as a University of Virginia, Center for Politics, Resident Scholar. In collaboration with the Center for Politics, she narrated the Emmy nominated 3-part documentary, Dismantling Democracy which aired nationally on PBS stations and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. 

    Setmayer is also the co-founder and CEO of The Seneca Project, a bipartisan political organization that was dedicated to mobilizing women voters in the 2024 presidential election and now focuses on issues impacting women and democracy.

    Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, will also speak at the conference. He is a nationally recognized expert and writer on topics related to school choice, teachers and teaching, policy analysis, and education politics.

    In 2024, Cowen authored The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, which explores the history of tax-funded school choice programs in the United States and warns of the dangers of education privatization.

    Former Federal Judge to Speak

    Conferees will also hear from distinguished civil rights lawyer and former federal judge David Tatel, who will participate in a fireside chat addressing the changing legal landscape in the United States, including issues that impact public education.

    Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Tatel served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the nation’s second-highest court, from 1994 to 2024, succeeding future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

    He headed the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter administration and then founded and led the education practice at Hogan Lovells, where he is now Senior Counsel.

    Tatel is the author of Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, in which he shares his experiences as a civil rights lawyer and a federal judge, as well as his journey from denial to acceptance of the blindness that followed him throughout his career.